Animism predates any form of organized religion and is said to contain the oldest spiritual and supernatural perspective in the world. It dates back to the Paleolithic Age, to a time when barbarian humans roamed the plains hunting and gathering, and communing with the Spirit of Nature. Have a look.
Animism comes from the Latin word Anima, which means Breath, or Soul. It is essentially a belief system about the continual formation of life through the spiritual nature of reality, and a communion with the Spirits that inhabit all things, from Rocks, to Trees, and all of Life.
To those who practice Animism, especially indigenous traditions, Animism is SO fundamental to their way of life, it is so “experienced fully” that they don’t even have a WORD for “Animism”. This is a word that the modern white man ascribed to try and understand the ancient belief systems….
It is an ancient belief system, and one that today is still present in a number of faiths, from the Native American Church to Shinto and even Voodoo. How wild is that?
Have you heard of the Baha’i Faith? They are a remarkable new world Faith that emerged out of Shi’a Islam but ultimately holds no resemblance to it whatsoever. They believe in the unification of all of the worlds religions and faiths, and through a practice of education and compassion, unification of the human spirit!
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Baha’is are distinctive in remaining committed to its global mission, especially in the developing world, while affirming radically inclusive values, including the oneness of humanity, universal education, the harmony of religion and science, monogamy, and equality of the sexes.
The movement also exists without a strict hierarchy or priesthood, although it has a rationalized administrative structure and views Baha U llah and his writings as manifestations of divinity.
Today, while not as many people know about or follow this faith, they are most prominently known for their temples, and most people will of course recognize the infamous lotus temple, which resides in New Delhi – India.
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Now, speaking for myself here, when I learned about Eastern Orthodoxy I was actually thrilled because it meant that I had the opportunity to learn about a faith that I had NO IDEA even existed! I was taught, much like most of the western world, that you’ve got Christianity, and Roman Catholicism, and that’s pretty much it! You know, some pentacostles speaking tongues over here and of course you’ve got the mormons, but who here has ever heard of “Eastern Orthodoxy?”
Turns out, it’s a lot more common over in the mediterranean and Asia Minor, and a little bit in Northern Africa, where it is a consolidation of about 13 Churches with no central institution, but share in the same general understanding and belief system about the nature of the Christian Faith!
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Turns out, this Faith actually came about during what is called “The Great Schism” of 1054, which was actually the BIRTH of Roman Catholicism as well! Who’da thunk it?!
There was many reasons for this Schism, including a language barrier that couldn’t be reconciled, but beyond that, one of the biggest reasons was the Filioque Debate.
It was in this debate that Christians fought over whether the “Holy Spirit” (Of the Holy Trinity) came from “The Father” AND “The Son”, or JUST from the Father.
In the end, Rome believed that the Holy Spirit came from the Father and Son, and the Eastern Orthodoxy believed that both emerged from the Father.
In other news, I just put together the Script for the Mormonism video, and THEY believe that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are 3 individual immaculate beings with physical bodies who create and rule the universe from a heaven that we cannot perceive. But we’re not focusing on that right now :P
In the end, Eastern Orthodoxy is a lot more centered around the “Mysteries” and “Mysticism” of the Christian Faith, where as Catholicism is more about the Political aspect of the Faith. The resurrection of Christ, and victory over even Death is the greatest mystery to them… which is remeniscient of the Ancient Egyptian and Pagan mystery schools from up to 4000 years before the time of Christ.
Finally, Icons are a huge part of the Eastern Orthodox church, focusing on very stylized images of Christ, Mary, and the Saints, not as a thing to worship, but to respect and venerate what they represent.
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Reform Judaism is the modernizing factor and branch within Judaism. They have separated themselves largely from a lot of the old jewish traditions. For example, where Orthodox Judaism strictly do not allow computers in the house, a lot of Reform Jewish people carry iPhones and laptops just like most of the modern world.
They often see their faith as sort of an ethical monotheism, where they follow and believe in God, or are otherwise Agnostic, but still consider themselves Jewish.
There is a large movement and support within Reform Judaism for equal rights among LGBT communities, and they are very open to inter-faith marriage, and working and striving to understand other faiths together as well.[shareaholic app=”share_buttons” id=”5111567″]
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Orthodox Judaism is not an organized movement, but a tendency among various groupings of Jewish people focused on resistance to the changes introduced by modernizing factions within the broader Jewish community.
It can be traced to mid-19th-century Germany, and characterizes Jews, who, countering Reform Judaism, emphasize the unchanging authority of the Torah, their Bible and Law, and Halacha, interpretations of legal rulings found in holy scripture, contained in the rabbinic texts of the Talmud and Midrash.
One of the most interesting thing that I find about the Jewish faith, personally, is that they reject Jesus Christ as the Messiah. They claim that he was NOT the Messiah, and that the true Messiah is still coming.
Is that not so, ridiculously interesting? Especially considering that Jesus was supposedly a Jewish man.
Now, this brings about a lot of questions and ideas to discuss. There is a lot of evidence of the story of Jesus coming from earlier texts, sort of combined into one story that was forced down everyones throat by the roman empire… It’s hard to say at this point, more research must still be done.
What do you think though? Are the Jews right about Jesus? Does it even matter?
If you want to see the follow up, and learn about Reform Judaism: Click Here!
Most people don’t know much about the Islam faiths, at least, in my part of the world anyways. Hell, I didn’t even know about them until I started doing Minute Faith and put these 2 at the top of the list.
Have a look!
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The Islamic faiths are largely split into 2 sects, which you could consider “The general masses” and “the specific bloodline of the prophet”. They often hold that they carry an animosity towards each other, but keep in mind that this is belief is held between individuals, and there are equally a lot of muslims who simply follow the words of Allah, love and respect others, and don’t worry so much about politics.
Just as with any religions, there are humble devout loving people… and then there are crazies.
One thing that always kind of stood out to me, especially in the recent months, was that how the big 3 religions, Christianity, Islam, and Judaism, are symbolically represented by “The Sun, The Moon, and the Star”
